Huawei had presented many LTE Routers to the network providers worldwide, there are many models of Huawei LTE Routers, many customers are confused what’s the difference between the Huawei 4G WiFi routers? How to select a Huawei 4G Router with SIM card slot and Ethernet port for my home or small office? In this article, we will provide a guide about how to buy a Huawei 4G router.
To buy a Huawei router, you must know where you will use the router, in home or office, in a car, bus, boat, farm, train or basement. And what the WiFi range of the wireless router would cover, this will decide you need a huawei indoor router or outdoor router. If you use the Huawei router in a small office and at home for small space, an indoor router would be enough, but if you use the Huawei router in a large farm or basement, we think a Huawei outdoor antenna would be better. Or course, indoor router may also be enough in a basement only if a high-gain LTE outdoor antenna is connected with the huawei router.
For example, if you would buy a Huawei router with SIM card and Ethernet port for home, you should also know how many devices would connect to the Huawei LTE router via WiFi and how many to connect with Ethernet port. Usually, Huawei 4G router may have one SIM card slot and 4 Ethernet ports (3 ports for LAN and One for WAN & LAN). For example, the Huawei B525s-23a Router has 4 LAN ports (one of them for WAN/LAN). But some Huawei routers have only two Ethernet ports, such as Huawei E5172 and Huawei B618 router. If more than 4 devices would connect via Ethernet port, you can get one more Huawei router with more Ethernet ports or connect your devices with WiFi adapter so that the device would connect via WiFi rather than Ethernet. Regarding the WiFi users, Huawei LTE WiFi routers usually supports maximum 32 wireless devices. So this is enough for common use in most case. If you are looking for Huawei 4G Router with Two SIM card slots, as we know, Huawei doesn’t provide such product. Maybe you can check other brands.
After confirming the interfaces, you must concern the network compatibility of the target 4G router. For example, you would just connect the Huawei router via WiFi, then the latest Huawei B618 router would be enough. But if you would use it with AT&T or T-mobile in USA, the Huawei B618s-22d CPE may not be a good option to select because the Huawei B618s-22d would not compatible with the 4G LTE networks from AT&T and T-mobile, even though it’s already unlocked. Huawei B618s-22d supports LTE frequency band 1/3/7/8/20/38, while AT&T deployed LTE networks on band 2/4/5/17/30 and band 2/4/12/71. Now you should select the Huawei B890-66 Router, which supports LTE band 2/4/5/7/12/13/17. It could support band 2/4/5/17 for AT&T and band 2/4/12 for T-mobile. So Huawei B890-66 Router would work both for AT&T and T-mobile 4G SIM. If you would use Huawei B618s-22d in European countries, there will be no any problem because it’s compatible with almost all the network providers in Europe such as Vodafone, Telekom, Orange, EE, OnePlus, Telenor etc. Because the main LTE frequency bands on LTE is B1, B3, B7.
The third factor that you should concern is the location to use the Huawei router. If you are located at city center, you can ignore this. But if you are located at the place far from the city center or cell tower, it would be much important for the Huawei LTE router to have connectors for 4G external antennas. The antenna connectors provide the possibility to improve better signal with help of high gain LTE antennas. The 2 x 2 MIMO or 4 x 4 MIMO may provide better performance with the LTE antennas. But if you would use outdoor antenna, this antenna factor may be not that important because the outdoor router already has high gain antenna. When installed the outdoor router, the signal would be better enough even using it at places of weak signal.
Then the fourth factor to consider is the LTE speed. Since the LTE develops to LTE advanced Pro, here now there are many Huawei routers with different LTE Categories, such LTE cat.3, LTE cat.4, LTE Cat.6 and LTE advanced Pro Cat.9 or Cat.11. They supports different LTE technologies with different LTE downlink & uplink speeds such as DL 100Mbps/UL 50mMbps(for LTE Cat.3), DL 150Mbps/UL 50Mbps(for LTE Cat.4), DL 300Mbps/UL 50Mbps(for LTE Cat.6), DL 600Mbps/UL 150Mbps(for LTE Cat.11). And we suppose there will be more Huawei LTE advanced Pro routers available in near future with the evolvement to 5G. Before you buy a LTE router, you need check whether your network carrier already provides the LTE or LTE-A networks, and then buy the appropriate router. But if you want the Huawei router to future proof, you can buy the LTE advanced Pro router even your network provider didn’t upgrade the LTE basic network to advanced pro.
Then you should consider the fifth factor: price. With more and more vendors presented their LTE routers to the markets, the price of Huawei 4G Routers is becoming cheaper and cheaper. The support of higher LTE level, the price is also higher. And with the support of higher level LTE networks, the routers can achieve faster download and upload speeds. Currently, most of Huawei routers are not more than 200.00USD. Some Huawei LTE WiFi routers are even around 100.00USD. The LTE cat.6 routers are the mainstream now. But most users are interested in LTE advanced pro routers since the faster, the better. Hope you will buy the best one on your budget.